Prepare a 5- to 10-minute speech that identifies a theme in Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Four Freedoms speech and relates that theme to (1) your own life and (2) issues that are relevant today. Present your speech to the class, using an outline to guide you.
The current issues that you choose to discuss might be related to politics, education, the media, or anything else of national or international importance as long as you make a clear link between the issues and a theme in Roosevelt's speech. Any experience from your personal life is also acceptable as long as you show how it relates to a theme from the Four Freedoms speech. In other words, your job is to connect ideas from the past to ideas in the present.
Your speech must make specific references to what Roosevelt says in the Four Freedoms speech, whether you decide to quote him or simply summarize his words. You must use examples from current events to demonstrate how the themes you've identified are still relevant today, and you must present examples from your personal life to show how the themes are relevant to you. These examples will appear underneath topics or subtopics in your outline:
A. Roosevelt's "freedom of speech and expression"
1. Censorship
a. Removing racial language from Mark Twain's books
b. National Geographic banned
2. The T-shirt I tried to wear at homecoming
Your speech must be rich with examples from Roosevelt's speech as well as from current issues and your own life. Although you don't have to research and cite specific sources, feel free to conduct research if it helps you brainstorm ideas.
1. What big theme from Franklin Delano Roosevelt's speech interests you the most, and why?
2. Brainstorm several ways you see this theme at work in your own life. Aim for a list of at least three or four items.
3. Brainstorm several ways you see this theme at work in the news or in current events. Again, aim for three or four items if you can.
Organizing and Refining Your Ideas
Use these questions to figure out how to shape and organize your speech.
4. What main point would you like to make with your speech? Draft a working claim.
5. Which ideas from your brainstorming will best help you defend this statement? Which will you address first, second, third, and so on?
6. What are some passages or thoughts from Roosevelt's Four Freedoms speech that you can use to defend your ideas?
7. If you're unsure of the facts for some of your examples, look them up in an encyclopedia, a newspaper, or another source now. Use the space below to jot down what you discover. You may leave this space blank if you do not need to do further research.
Drafting Your Outline
8. Organize your ideas into outline form, including all the major points you need to cover in your speech.
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